The Duet Arthur Devis, 1749 The Victoria & Albert Museum |
These settings often did not represent real interiors. Painters such as the celebrated portrait artist Arthur Devis tended to show these interiors as grand and sparsely furnished. Take this portrait from 1749, for example which shows a couple in a grand interior. The scene is clearly fanciful, but the detail of the paintings on the walls and the view of the park through the fashionable Venetian window suggest that the background is probably based on a real house. Devis shows us an unknown couple of evident social standing. The woman is shown seated at a harpsichord while her companion hands her sheet music. Such a scene implies wealth, culture, taste, harmony, and leisure.
Devis was famous for informal portraits such as this. Devis' customers tended to be of the class of wealthy landowners as opposed to titled nobility.
1 comment:
I love the 'feel' of the rich silks, and velvet looking blue frock coat...The artist brings the texture to life with the light and the exquisite detail.
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